Brexiteers are furious about the decision to hold the 'no confidence' vote today. They had been led to believe it was Monday so they could prepare. One tells me: "It is an absolute outrage. Whether we end up with a change of leader we will end up with a change in 22 chairman."

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Greeted by msg from a now-ex May loyalist MP who won’t go on record but confirms a previously unrecorded (by us) 1922 letter:"I supported Theresa May from Day 1, I also voted Remain, but I have now submitted my letter of 'no confidence' in her leadership” pic.twitter.com/gQa7ArjkMt

Friday, 7 December 2018

Wow! First real evidence of Tory grassroots fury over the #Brexit deal.Exclusive. Tory Association Chairmen protest against the “misuse of Party funds” on “propaganda campaign” backing the deal | Conservative Home https://t.co/MeXGh3GUhI Great story by @wallaceme

Shami Chakrabati says #TheresaMay should resign if she loses vote next Tuesday "because that is democracy". 😂. Says a woman who's never won a single vote from a single member of the electorate & yet sits in Parliament and in the Shadow Cabinet of Her Majesty's Opposition #bbcqt

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

A sign of dire straits: the PM had dinner in Members’ Dining Room tonight - the first time she’s been seen in there for 10 years. An unimpressed Tory MP: “She didn’t know what to do, or where to get her food. I’ve never seen anything more desperate”.

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Margaret Hodge, collecting Speech of the Year award: “My father tried to make me Jewish and failed. The local rabbi tried to make me Jewish and failed. It took the Leader of the Labour Party to do that” #SpecAwards

Bizarrely, May might have actually judged the public's mood correctly (for once); namely that people are fed up/despairing over the continued uncertainty, and need this to be settled so that they can move on with their lives.

Unfortunately, May's deal (if it does pass) is but one step forward on a very long and winding road!

This is what Theresa May told me on Monday about today's Brexit forecasts. Basically, don't trust them, especially if they say staying in the EU is better than my deal. I wonder if @HMTreasury agrees with her? pic.twitter.com/S1vV5a0zGi

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Current state of UK politics:Government so inept it’s lost the DUP votes that have been propping it up.Opposition so inept that despite the Government not having a majority the Government still won a vote last night.Backbenchers so inept they can’t count to 48.

David Davis - tipped as a successor to Theresa May - tonight: "This is the moment of truth ... Cabinet and all Conservative MPs should stand up, be counted and say no to this capitulation." #BrexitDealhttps://t.co/3H01SZ7g09

Whilst Davis may well be right about May's plan, and whilst it is also quite possible she will fail and be kicked out of office, his belief (or rather his media chum's belief) that he will be leader is a bit of a stretch!

"Sometimes I think Mrs May could be ousted tomorrow. Other times I think my great-great-grandchildren will awake to the news that Mrs May has just negotiated a 95th extra year for the transition period" @MichaelPDeacon speaks for all hacks

Thursday, 18 October 2018

In order for the UK to face down the darkness of the ongoing Brexit "negotiations" with a degree of calmness and
fortitude, it needs a leader/government that displays leadership, fortitude and
competence!

We changed Prime Minister when facing a Nazi invasion, now we can't
even change Speaker!

Theresa May's problems, & by definition the UK's problems, are that 1 She is indecisive & 2 She has no majority mandate to negotiate. Hence no one knows what she wants, because she doesn't know herself; even if she did she wouldn't be able to carry the Tories/parliament with her.

Friday, 12 October 2018

When Theresa May announced, in her recent conference speech that austerity was over, many in the media and politics dismissed it as BS.

However, I refer you to the news on the BBC today that say senior judges in England and Wales
could be set for pay rises of up to 32% if recommendations made by the
Senior Salaries Review Body are accepted.

The move aims to address low morale among judges and to compensate them for changes to their pension scheme.

The recommendations would see a High Court judge receive an additional £60,000 a year.
Crown Court judges would receive a 22% rise - taking them to £165,000 - and district judges would get an 8% rise.

Clearly austerity is definitely over, as there is no way judges would get such a stonking pay rise if others in the public sector didn't as well!

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Lots of wild and loose talk about leadership moves. There is no vacancy. However, on a technical point, if a vacancy did arise process need not take more than 2 working weeks - 4 days in Commons (if needed) and 6 days with membership - does not need to be an overly long process

This is extraordinary. In the event the DUP vote down the budget: “No10 sources also insisted the move would be a clear breach of the Tory-DUP confidence and supply agreement – meaning Ulster would also have to pay back its £1bn bonus from the government.” https://t.co/cgQiIiunRV

Sadly, because of Theresa May's disastrous decision to call and election and then botch it, the country is being run by government propped up by the DUP (who demanded £1BN for their support).

Now that things are hotting up wrt Brexit, the DUP is relishing its position of "power broker", or more accurately in this case "power destroyer", and is threatening to vote against the Budget if their Brexit "red lines" are crossed.

The DUP claim to want to be treated as the same as the rest of the UK. This is all very well, noble and commendable. However, when it comes to other laws (eg abortion) the DUP are "strangely" reluctant to follow the UK's lead.

Inevitably, as could have been predicted when the confidence and supply deal was brokered by May, this particular house of cards looks like it is about to come crashing down to earth.

As and when it does, I will be most fascinated to see how May gets the £1BN back!

Wednesday, 10 October 2018

Hats off to Steve Coogan, Patrick Kielty, Ian McEwan, Alastair Campbell, Eddie Izzard, Sir Patrick Stewart and Delia Smith who are on the list of sponsors to help pay for protesters to travel to London for the anti-Brexit #PeopleVoteMarch on October 20th.https://t.co/xaisBP7SSp

Monday, 8 October 2018

Such is the bizarre state of British politics, that we have finally crossed through the looking glass, and are now in a world where Tory ministers are in talks with aaround 25 Labour MPs to secure
Theresa May's widely despised Chequers Brexit deal.

Seemingly the Government’s whips’ office has spent recent months making contact
with the MPs, as a back-up option for when May’s Brexit deal is put
to a vote in Parliament in early December.

Thursday, 4 October 2018

May will have to find at least an extra £20billion to spend on public
services to fulfil her pledge that austerity is over, according to the
head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Paul Johnson said even that amount of additional funding “won’t feel
particularly generous” and would almost certainly have to be found
through borrowing because the Government would “really struggle to get
tax rises through” Parliament.

Basically, Theresa May shrouded her "end of austerity" in the cloak of "a good Brexit".

The reality is that we have, at this stage, no way of knowing if there will be a "good Brexit" and what, exactly, she means by an end to "austerity".

May has no grounding/understanding in finance/economics so it is very doubtful that she understood what she mean either!

Ominous for the PM? Security guard at Tory conf tells me: "I saw the telly last night and her speech sounds like she's talking about *more* years of austerity. Oh yeah that's really want we want isnt it? If she keeps that up, the other bloke is going to win."

Monday, 1 October 2018

Boris Johnson has been snapped running through fields near his home. But was he also attempting to "troll" the PM, who famously said her naughtiest moment was running through fields of wheat as a child? 🤔https://t.co/374yaknYNnpic.twitter.com/utHH50Jmqn

Thursday, 27 September 2018

"There are some in the cabinet who still loathe Brexit and regard
Chequers as the UK’s opening offer. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, is
expected to push to stay in the customs union and makes no attempt to
disguise his concerns about Brexit.

In cabinet meetings this week, he
complained that a restaurant in his Surrey constituency can’t hire
enough staff to wait all the tables — proof, he said, that the UK needed
low-skilled immigration.

But as one exasperated cabinet minister put it
to me afterwards, it didn’t seem to have occurred to the Chancellor
that maybe the restaurant should just pay its staff more. And that the
balance of power between workers and low-wage businesses might be
precisely why so many voted for Brexit in the first place."

Philip, economies are not just supply sided they are also demand driven. Market forces will sort out the imbalance of low skilled EU workers, one way or another!

Monday, 24 September 2018

New Labour policy. Labour MPs will vote down May deal, cos it fails six tests, push for GE, fail to get one, and then campaign for a public vote in which the choice is solely between the May deal that Labour has already rejected and no deal/Armageddon. What an offer.

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

NEW Extraordinary reports of open plotting against the PM at a meeting of the European Research Group of Tory MPs today. One source says there were 50 Tory MPs in the room "just discussing the matter openly"and "wargaming" how to get rid of the Prime Minister.

The Times reports that Jeremy Corbyn has been summoned for a personal briefing by the head
of MI5 on the terrorist threat to Britain amid questions about his
approach to national security.

Andrew Parker, the
director-general of the Security Service, is expected to give the Labour
leader a “full briefing” on the threat from Islamists in Britain and
Isis jihadists returning from the Middle East to plot atrocities on home
soil.

The MI5 boss also wants to prime Corbyn on the extent of
hostile Russian espionage activity and the growing threat from far-right
extremists.

Corbyn had been asked to attend the briefing yesterday, but he has had an attack of cold feet and postponed it.

Gerry Adams etc were once terrorists, they are now part of the mainstream political process in Northern Ireland. Harking back to the Thatcher government's stance in the 80's is irrelevant, circumstances have move on considerably since then.

I hereby expose Corbyn saying 'Zionists' have 'no sense of English irony' and need to be taught 'lessons, which we could perhaps help them with'. This was a conference alongside many extremists, advertised by Hamas' propaganda website. https://t.co/OdXjqEqTtI

Formal complaint also calls for investigations into Brandon Lewis, Anna Soubry and Ken Clarke. CCHQ announced that they were automatically investigating Boris after they received a complaint – will they be pursuing these with such public vigour as well? https://t.co/G843o4w6TU

Tuesday, 14 August 2018

I'm going to stop using the c-word for a bit on here, as I have been over-using it recently. But before I do: the way he over-says "some tea" here, so absurdly convinced of his own lovable posh maverick-ness, is just unbelievably cunty. https://t.co/m0KbdqRity

Wednesday, 8 August 2018

This was Anna Soubry on Question Time in 2013 after Ken Clarke called the burka a “bag”. She had no words of criticism for Clarke. Instead she backed him and said the burka is a “peculiar concept”.... https://t.co/xVVA3nPJAo

The clusterfuck that is British politics today is symbolised by the two most useless people to lead the mainstream parties in history. Neither May nor Corbyn are fit to lead a party, let alone the country.

The voters know this, and would vote "for anyone but Corbyn or May". The trouble is there is currently no one for them to vote for, this makes for a very dangerous situation as political vacuums are often filled by very undesirable elements.

The solution?

Both Tories and Labour must ditch their respective leaders before it is too late.

Tuesday, 17 July 2018

LibDem source says @vincecable was “off the parliamentary estate at an important meeting” and his absence was “approved by LibDem whips” - because LibDems “didn’t expect vote to be close”. Shame in this age of social media there’s no way of staying in touch https://t.co/xVuzm25G6x

Friday, 13 July 2018

“He is a very talented guy. I was very saddened to see that he was
leaving Government and I hope he goes back in at some point because… I
think he is a great representative for your country. I think he’s got
what it takes and I think he has got the right attitude to be a great
Prime Minister.”

Thursday, 5 July 2018

Source better than Peston. May is going to put final deal to the country by calling a November election for Thursday the 15th. This will be the defining agreement on leaving deal. Both sides Brexiteers and Remainers in the cabinet approve of the deal as 29th March is in UK Law

Monday, 2 July 2018

Theresa May: Today I am launching a Conservative Policy Commission, which will go out and engage with people throughout the UK to develop new policies that can improve the lives of people in our country. pic.twitter.com/vnWxhUSbU1

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Truly hard to believe that a guy with no background in economics —and no demonstrable understanding of it — would advocate for a central bank remit that could never, under any conditions, ever be met ... https://t.co/rKdNMf9vDd

Friday, 15 June 2018

DWP's own research found:* Only a fifth (21%) applied online without help* A quarter (23%) did not find their claimant commitment was explained well* Four in ten had difficulties paying their bills* One in three had housing payment arrears* 4 in 10 (44%) said that got worse https://t.co/NFsRDRKodo